Pumphrey’s Coffee of Newcastle hosted the 2012 UK Barista Championships Northern Heat at the Life Science Centre on Friday 17th February, filling the event with local baristas (8 out of the 14 who competed live or work in Newcastle) and even attracted spectators from Scotland.

Both Sky News Tyne and Wear and the BBC covered the event
click to view a short Sky video featurng Chris Killen, Stuart Lee Archer and the UKBC Judges


Gordon Howell, of The Attic (at Harlequin Coffee and Tea House – York) was the winner of this hotly contested heat, followed closely by Stuart Archer of Pumphrey’s Coffee, and Steven Dyson of Spring Espresso .

In a break from tradition, the winner of Best Espresso (Gordon Howell), Best Cappuccino (Joe Meagher) and Best Signature Drink (Tom Booth) went to 3 different baristas.

Gordon Howell is a 4th time entrant in the UK Barista Championships and first competed the last time that the Northern Heat was held in Newcastle.

Gordon used Has Bean’s “Jailbreak” coffee during his performance, serving it in all 3 drink categories. For his signature drink he deconstructed the blend to highlight each coffee’s characteristics by preparing the coffee’s individually as a pourover or aeropress, giving the judges a total sensory experience with aromas and taste coming together right at the end by folding these ingredients into the espresso.

Without the help of volunteers an event of this size could not run as smoothly as it did, and both competitors, sponsors and exhibitors have been in touch to express their gratitude to all those who helped.

Photographs from Newcastle based barista, Rob Sharpe, are now available to view on the SCAE UK Flickr site

Now that we have the scores from the first 3 heats the Top 20 Barista Leaderboard has also been published.

Top 20 Barista Leaderboard (after 3 heats)
Sang Ho Park
Dale Harris
Maxwell Colonna Dashwood
Gordon Howell
Dave Jones
Dan Fellows
Matthew Robley-Siemonsma
Rummy Keshett
Sam Dunford
Stuart Archer
James Bailey
Steve Dyson
Mark Pooley
Chris Walton
Alex Passmore
Christopher Killen
Philip Hambleton
Steve Pearson
Amber Rodgers
Gerraint James

We are now building towards the next event – the UK Coffee Events Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits and Cezve/Ibrik competitions, collective taking place at Hotelympia on 29Feb and 01 Mar.

Spectator entry is free but you will need to register online at http://www.hotelympia.com/

For further details visit the SCAE UK site